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Weakness In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'

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The Effects of Weakness How is a reverend, who has destroyed his own ticket through the magnificent gates of Heaven with sin, supposed to provide spiritual guidance to acquire that same ticket to the denizens of the community? Correct answer: He is not. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale, the reverend, undergoes a transformation that leaves him dead and the Puritan society in disbelief. This transformation leads him to perform acts with unnatural strength from the usually very weak man. The strength drains him, leaving him dead after living a life of sin, weakness, and self-hatred. His weaknesses transform his view of himself until he despises who he is. His feeble attitude is what brings him to lose his final strengths. Because of his inability to admit his sins, Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, transforms from a holy minister to a self-loathing sinner, …show more content…

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne opens with a weak reverend with a life full of sin and ends with a weak reverend who has finally redeemed himself, earning his ticket through the grandiose gates of Heaven. Dimmesdale 's weakness stems from his inability to admit his sins and the guilt derived from this inability eating away at him. His weakness begins to wear on him which makes him loathe his miserable self because of the inability to admit his sins. Finally, with a final bout of strength he frees himself from Chillingworth, from all the sin, and from all the guilt that has filled his life for seven long wearisome years. The transformation of being the holiest to the least holiest is clearly seen. However, when he was viewed as the holiest he was not with God and when viewed as an equal sinner to the masses he finally achieves acceptance of God. Through his feeble attitude Dimmesdale completely was transformed, becoming self loathing was a consequence of his weakness, and as a consequence of loathing he perished in front of all his previous

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In the book The scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne questions the reader by questioning whether it is okay to punish sinners since we all have committed sins. Scarlet letter takes place in massachustes in new england in the time of colonization of the new world.at the time massachustes is very religious and the church has alot of power over the people, they control almost evry aspect of their life and punish thoose who commit sins. Dimmesdale is the head of the church in salem massachusetts and he is defined by how people admired him and how people liked him, this traits affect the theme and other characters in the story because it makes dimmesdale look pure and sin free making people make wrong assumption and decisions when it come to dimmesdale. At the beginning of the book Dimmesdale is liked by his community and is well respected.

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits a mortal sin by having an affair with a married woman, Hester Prynne. As a man of the cloth in Puritan society, Dimmesdale is expected to be the embodiment of the town’s values. He becomes captive to a self-imposed guilt that manifests from affair and his fear that he won’t meet the town’s high expectations of him. In an attempt to mitigate this guilt, Dimmesdale acts “piously” and accepts Chillingworth’s torture, causing him to suffer privately, unlike Hester who repented in the eyes of the townspeople. When Dimmesdale finally reveals his sin to the townspeople, he is able to free himself from his guilt.

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In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” and the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the stories of two men who keep their sins secret and are hurt deeply. In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale does not reveal his sin to the community and experiences far more pain than Hester, whose sin is revealed. Years after the original sin, Hester has healed and is accepted by the community, while Dimmesdale still feels guilty, as can be seen when he mounts the scaffold. Dimmesdale’s experience is similar to that of Reverend Hooper, who covers his face after a secret sin and is eschewed by the community. When we refuse to admit our faults, we will feel guilty

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Humans have a tendency to conform and often neglect the potential consequences of doing so. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author introduces those consequences through a respected clergyman and sinner named Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale struggles with his guilty conscience and cowardice to confess his sin which prompts him to abide by societal rules but question himself in private. Dimmesdale’s conflict between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the novel’s message that everybody must confront their sins or they will fall victim to some form of retribution.

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Character Foils In The Scarlet Letter Those who contrast each other make for engrossing storytelling. Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates this truth often in his romantic narrative, “The Scarlet Letter”.

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There are many different themes in the early chapters of The Scarlet Letter that support the development of the plot. A main theme found in the novel is that deception and secrecy can be destructive. Hawthorne incorporates several secrets kept for various reasons, and all lead to some form of chaos. One example is the Reverend’s attempt to keep his connection with Pearl a secret, which proves to be a major impediment to his everyday life. Reverend Dimmesdale’s secret is one that becomes destructive in his mental and physical health, his involvement with the church and community, and in his relationships with others.

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Sinner are forced to live with their sins for the rest of their lives, that is a moral consequence they must live with. Sin may not be affecting a person on the outside, but they will continue to feel its effect on the inside. Nathaniel Hawthorn 's The Scarlet Letter gives insight on how sin can affect a person without giving any outward appearance. This is shown when Reverend Dimmesdale becomes frail and dies because of the sin he had committed. Dimmesdale exclaims “God knows; and He is merciful!

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The exploration of societal pressures. Life can be separated into two equal parts totally independent from one another. The inner self, being the innermost thoughts and feelings of the individual, and the outer self, how the individual decides to conduct itself around the others in society. Often times one of these parts takes control of the other, suppressing its partner. The suppression is often not of equal frequency because of the obligation humans feel to be liked and to fit in causes the outermost self to be given the most thought and worry.

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Hawthorn’s Shameless Advertisement of Letting of Shame Before the age of tv ads featuring shallow message, people were brainwashed with shamelessly written romantics era books that teach deep, important lessons even modern readers can appreciate. A perfect example of this is Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, in which Hawthorne uses a shameless advertising style. Hawthorne’s advertisement focuses on Arthur Dimmesdale, a much adored but guilt haunted priest, and Hester Prynne, an aging woman who faces constant ignominy due to the letter A that she wears as punishment for adultery with Dimmesdale. Both are haunted by shame:

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(Hawthorne 148). She made herself a reliable person to her community, and by doing this, she redeemed herself from her sin. Humans eventually fall from grace. How they respond to this can either strengthen their character or lead them to ruin. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne vividly portrays the different ways people can deal with their failures.

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The Scarlet Letter In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne implicitly presents the statement that when women displayed strength in their character they were opposing Puritan beliefs. Through closer examination, Hawthorne’s claim is validated as Hester defies the religious views of the Puritans, and begins to develop feminist qualities. In order to further establish his claim, Hawthorne uses his characters and incorporates biblical allusions in his text. Hawthorne commences to prove his claim by arguing how Puritans believed that your focus should be placed on God and the church, and not yourselves.

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However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.

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Hawthorne can portray Dimmesdale's struggles by using climactic diction as well as juxtaposing his ideas about Dimmesdale’s thoughts on life and death. As Hester was suffering public humiliation Dimmesdale was facing his personal and inner struggles. Hawthorne presents his thoughts, “While thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office. He won it, indeed, in great part, by his sorrows.” (Hawthorne 117) Hawthorne can exemplify Dimmesdale’s self-pity by using powerful words like “black trouble” and “machinations.”

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Penance vs. Penitence In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of the hypocrisy of the Puritans in the 1600’s. He expresses the hardships of Hester Prynne and her adulterous lover, Authur Dimmesdale, who is also the town’s preacher. Because Reverend Dimmesdale is a very noble preacher, he has to persist with the guilt of his sin and continue to preach how one should live a holy and pure lifestyle.

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The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).

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